Ravi Ashwin’s long-pause before getting Jos Buttler out was against the Spirit of Cricket: MCC

More than their victory against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) grabbed the limelight owing to a controversy, involving their captain Ravi Ashwin. The off-spinner ‘mankaded’ non-striker Jos Buttler when the latter was batting on 69 during the Royals’ run-chase and the dismissal literally changed the course of the encounter.

Subsequently, Ashwin was a recipient of severe criticism from every nook and corner of the world, though he got support from the likes of Rahul Dravid and Mitchell Johnson, who said that the tweaker was well within his rights to dismiss the batsman. Thereafter, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) came up with a statement, which was more in the experienced bowler’s favour.

“If the non-striker is out of his/her ground from the moment the ball comes into play to the instant when the bowler would normally have been expected to release the ball, the bowler is permitted to attempt to run him/her out. Whether the attempt is successful or not, the ball shall not count as one in the over,” the statement read.

MCC make further revelations

However, now the MCC seemed to have taken a U-turn on the matter, which has created a furor in the cricketing world. It said that the pause which Ashwin took before sending down the delivery was way too long and that was against the Spirit of Cricket. It was also mentioned that the bowler allowed the Englishman to leave his crease before he whipped the bails off in a flash.

“We now have had a chance to review it in more detail and we think that Buttler was in his ground as Ashwin got into a position when the non-striker could reasonably have expected the ball to have been delivered,” Frazer Stewart, MCC’s cricket academy manager was quoted as saying in ESPNcricinfo.

“Ashwin seemed to pause to allow Buttler to go out of his ground and then obviously he put the wicket down; Buttler did not really make much of an effort to get back into his ground. It is one where we just felt the pause was just too long and therefore not within the spirit of cricket,” he remarked.

“We think on this particular delivery, Buttler was within his ground until the right moment, the key moment was when the ball would normally have been delivered, and we think Buttler was just within his ground at that point. It was only then he carried on to wander out and the release was delayed when the wicket was put down.”

After the controversial match, Punjab went on to make a lot of changes in their eleven in the match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Eden Gardens. Ravi Ashwin’s men lost the game by 28 runs after being asked to chase down a monstrous score of 219 runs by Dinesh Karthik and Co.

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